Autoimmunity in Parkinson ' s Disease

Is Parkinson's disease in part an autoimmune condition? Parkinson's is an age-related neurodegenerative condition in which the primary motor control symptoms result from the death of a specialized population of neurons that generate dopamine. There are also other harms done to neurological function, however. Under the hood, processes such as chronic inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and aggregation of α-synuclein contibute to that cell death. Researchers here speculate on an autoimmune component to the pathology of Parkinson's disease, in that these mechanisms also drive the immune system into greater inflammatory activity that harms healthy tissue. A new study adds increasing evidence that Parkinson's disease is partly an autoimmune disease. In fact, the researchers report that signs of autoimmunity can appear in Parkinson's disease patients years before their official diagnosis. Scientists have long known that clumps of a damaged protein called alpha-synuclein build up in the dopamine-producing brain cells of patients with Parkinson's disease. These clumps eventually lead to cell death, causing motor symptoms and cognitive decline. An earlier study showed that alpha-synuclein can act as a beacon for certain T cells, causing them to mistakenly attack brain cells and potentially contribute to the progression of Parkinson's. This was the first direct evidence that autoimmunity could play a role in Parkinson's disease. The new findings shed light on the ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs